Thursday, July 27, 2017

Flash's Bounty is a streamlined, pared-down approach to what has now become a franchise of games derived from a single classic title, which only shows how much there is to be said for developing an original gaming formula. In Flash's Bounty, you play a knight of King Maximus, keeping West Liberon safe from monsters and keeping the barbarian attacks at bay so the average peasant can go about their ordinary lives in peace. Maximus has promised to give the King's Bounty to whoever can retrieve the Unicorn Sword, which provides a convenient pretext to adventure through the landscape putting down surreal critters, restoring civilization, building forces and generally living it up with honor and valor.

Flash's BountyAdventuring with your apparently-clockwork steed takes place on land, in caves and eventually — when you can buy a boat — sea. (Don't worry about those all-black ships angling ominously towards you, I'm sure they're just friendly sailors with a love of quality gothic-industrial music.) Defeating the bad guys will gain you gold and experience, and you'll also get paid each week at a rate you can increase by exploring. You'll encounter various recruitable unit types here and there around the map, and with enough gold, you can hire them up to a limit defined by your leadership ability.

Each week a different unit type is featured, and their numbers replenish automatically. Chests will typically offer you money, or the option to distribute it among your troops instead for a significant leadership buff. Leveling will present a choice between two different buffs, and refreshingly if your level blatantly outclasses the forces you encounter they're likely to surrender without a fight and you'll gain experience regardless. Movement is with your preference of [WASD] and [arrow] keys while clicking selects from menus. We found the maps large enough to keep things interesting, with more added through the course of the game. While Flash's Bounty does seem to overemphasize on the power of ranged units like pixies and archers and think that seventy peasant farmers wielding pitchforks are of no consequence — we beg to differ — we were delighted to find the diversity of all the martial units mundane and surreal, friendly and otherwise, available. And the ability to teleport the opposing ranged units directly into the thick of your heavy-duty bruiser melee forces is an unrivaled opportunity for irrepressible giggling not to be missed. With plenty of maps for adventuring and even an Endless Play mode, now is the perfect time to discover the Bounty.

Friday, July 21, 2017

The Forest Temple is a cool physics-based adventure game. Instead of one hero, in The Forest Temple, you've got two, and you'll need to use them both to get through the levels. Control WaterGirl with the [W, A, S, D] keys, and direct FireBoy with the arrow keys. At the same time. You'll be collecting diamonds as you make your way to the exit in each level; blue diamonds can only be grabbed by WaterGirl, and red ones are reserved for FireBoy. You'll need to get them both safely to their exit doors if you want to progress, which is easier said than done. Both characters are vulnerable to their opposing elements, such as pools of water or lava, and green pools are deadly to both of them. One wrong move and you'll have to restart the level. (Or click the green button at the bottom of the screen to restart manually if you get stuck.)

If you play as Fireboy then you can walk through the lava lakes; if you play as Watergirl, then you can walk through the water lakes. Neither character can walk through the green lake, though, so don’t even try to walk through them or you will end up dying and making your teammate lose as well.

If you start a level and either win or lose and you want to be paired up with the same person again, then hit the restart button, and if they hit it too, you will be paired with them again. However, if you want a different person, then hit the main menu button instead and then restart the level.

Look out for switches that open doors that you need to get through, as well. One player needs to open the door by standing on the switch, while the other one needs to run through the open door. Once one of you runs through the door, step on the switch on the other side so that the other player can go through the door as well.

Make sure that you are in an area with a good internet connection. If you have a lousy connection, then you are going to have a lousy performance when you play. You should have at least three bars of LTE, or have cable wifi, in order for the connection with the other player to remain strong.

If, even after you have a good connection, you can’t get the game to work right, then shut the game down, and then open it back up. When you open the game back up (in an area with a good connection of course), go to the level select screen again and open the level that you were trying to play, and it should work.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Final Ninja, created by the same Nitrome team (Simon Hunter and Aaron Steed) that brought us, Dirk Valentine, is here! This side-scrolling action adventure has plenty of tricks up its sleeve, and the word "ninja" alone will grab many players. In Final Ninja's case, however, I'm happy to say that it's one of the few ninja-based titles that really is fun (and faithfully ninja-like, for that matter).

In Final Ninja, you play an anime-inspired ninja armed with throwing stars, a grappling rope, and the ability to stealth-hide into the shadows. The stealth mode is a pretty fun tactic, as you'll be met with lots of security systems and enemies that will require a delicate touch to overcome. The grapple is definitely the key mechanic that makes this game shine. Without it, it'd be just another run-and-gun ninja platformer (although still noteworthy).

You're charged with the task of completing each level by reaching a black data access card, all with the intent of facing down your nemesis, Akuma. It's the classic "student tries to rebel against old-and-wise master" story, as you're called into action once again after 10 years of meditation to don the special ninja suit and vanquish your arch rival. You can use the [arrow] or [WASD] keys to run and jump, while the mouse button fires your throwing stars and grapple (aimed by the mouse cursor). Pressing [down] or [S] will let you enter stealth mode, a state in which you'll become virtually transparent except for your cool green, glowing eyes. This state allows most enemies and security lasers to pass you by you undetected. And it wouldn't be a ninja game without wall-jumping, would it? You can push against any wall to latch onto it, slowing your fall until you jump in the opposite direction.

The real acrobatics come from using the grapple. Throwing stars can be fired in quick succession by tapping the mouse, but if you click and hold it instead of releasing, you'll fire the grapple that hooks onto most surfaces and lets you swing from ledge to ledge. The grappling system will be most familiar to those who have played the Worms series. Once deployed, you can climb up and down the rope by using the applicable directional key or gain momentum by swinging back and forth. You can even gain enough momentum from a standstill to pull a complete 360 (if you can master the right timing between the up-and-down and side-to-side movement).

Analysis: Nitrome didn't stray off the beaten path when it comes to the look and feel of Final Ninja. The cartoonish pixel graphics are exactly what we're used to seeing and they're just as good as ever. Aside from a seemingly "sticky" wall jumping mechanic, I was a bit hard-pressed to find many faults in Final Ninja. Level progression tempo is tuned perfectly, introducing new elements level by level with signpost tutorial hints along the way. Within each level, no matter where you are, you'll never find yourself far from an arrow indicating which direction you should follow so you don't get lost.

As you get past the fifth level or so, a larger variety of enemies and security systems are introduced, keeping your environments interesting and dynamic. Things get a bit tougher when electric platform edges are introduced, limiting your grappling options. Quote the game, "Even a ninja cannot defeat electricity...I respect its ability to bring death to those who are slow".

An interesting, atmospheric and all-around fun grapple-based platformer from Nitrome!

Friday, July 7, 2017

This is a game based on the Roman gladiators. You take part in lots of tournaments and duels, your goal is to become the champion of the arena from being a weak prisoner to defeating the powerful and evil Emperor Antares.